- Mistinguett by Nadar - Wikimedia Commons
Born in Enghien, France, in 1873, Mistinguett’s real name was Jeanne Bourgeois. At an early age, the ambitious young girl decided that she wanted to sing at the cafe-concerts, an early form of the French music hall. She persuaded her parents to send her to singing, dancing, and acting lessons. She also learned to play the violin.
Mistinguett’s first job was as a flower-seller at the entrance of the Casino de Paris. She was only 12. She decided that she would do anything to go on the stage, so she used to travel to Paris daily on the train and associate with singers, dancers and actors. Mistinguett was very determined to become a star at the café-concerts, even though her middle-class parents wanted a more respectable career for her.
Mistinguett’s Career
Mistinguett began her career at 18. She chose the name ‘Mistinguett’ as her stage name. There are many stories about how she acquired the name, ‘Mistinguett’. According to one legend, a fellow passenger on the train called her ‘Miss Helyett’. This became ‘Miss Tinguette’ and eventually turned into ‘Mistinguett’.
Another story is that ‘Miss Tinguett’ was the name of a character in a musical who had protruding teeth. Mistinguett joined the two words together and decided that it would look and sound better without the ‘e’. The interesting name certainly helped her stage career.
She began her career by playing the character of ‘a gommeuse’. This was a comic part of a poor Parisian woman. Her singing voice was poor so she concentrated on comic parts and risqué songs and a rather frenetic style of dancing. She spent long years at the Eldorado, but she really wanted to sing at the Folies Bergère, and the Moulin Rouge.
Her big chance came when the more prominent singer, Max Dearly, chose her to do an ‘apache dance’ with him at the Moulin Rouge in 1908. This was a dance in which the man was very dominant and threw the submissive woman around the stage. This style of dance started to become popular in the Edwardian era.
Mistinguett once said that she performed nude at the Folies Bergère and that this was the start of the ‘music-hall’. Her music-hall career was extremely successful. She became the highest paid female entertainer in the world. Her partnership with the much younger Maurice Chevalier advanced both their careers. She gave him his start and they performed together for many years.
The suave Maurice Chevalier and Mistinguett were also lovers. After their relationship ended, Mistinguett accused him of using her and dumping her. But she said that his absence dominated the rest of her life.
Mistinguett’s Million Dollar Legs
Mistinguett is remembered even now for her beautiful legs. These were insured for $1 million dollars! She apparently didn’t expose much of her legs. However, she did expose enough of her legs to shock people at the time! This was in an era when the sight of a woman’s ankles and calves was unusual.
Mistinguett’s career lasted over forty years. It included comic roles in the theatre as well as the music hall. She also performed in New York, toured South America, and made over forty-six silent movies. The French star set many trends which were copied by other artists. These included walking down a sweeping staircase and wearing a very large head-dress.
Mistinguett lived a long life and died at 80.
Sources
- Christie's Auction: Showgirl with the $1m Legs
- Larry Portis, French Frenzies: A Social History of Pop Music in France. College Station, TX: Virtualbookworm.com, 2004, pp.45 -50
- Jennifer Uglow, Frances Hinton, Maggy Hendry, The Northeastern Dictionary of Women's Biography, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1999.
Lisa Sanderson - Lisa has been a freelance-writer for many years. She used to write for the topic, British Social History, for Suite 101 under the ...
